Phishing and Spoofing

Just as there are convincing looking websites, there are equally convincing looking emails that contain links to fraudulent websites. These emails may look like they came from Hometown Bank or another trustworthy sender, but you can often detect something not quite right.

Telltale signs of phishing and spoofing emails:

A need for personal information. Hometown Bank will never request your personal information, not even your ATM PIN.

Urgent requests and system updates. Many of these scam emails state that your account may be closed if you fail to confirm, verify or authenticate your personal information via email. We would never contact you about a security problem in this manner.

Offers that sound too good to be true. Beware of emails containing a customer service survey that promises some type of reward for your time, only to be asked for your account number to receive the reward.

Typos and other errors. A good deal of fraudulent emails are generated by foreign or poorly educated individuals, so you will often find typos, grammatical errors, awkward language and abnormal visual design. A logo may be an older version or the wrong color.

Steps you can take to protect against phishing and spoofing:

Always look for your "security image" when you sign in to Online Banking.

Delete any suspicious email you receive.

Before clicking any links on a legitimate looking email, hover over the link with your mouse pointer and examine the destination for that link when it pops up or shows along the bottom of your program window. If the pop-up address doesn't point to the correct site, that's the sign of a potentially disreputable website.